Sound Recordings, Warwickshire

Description

Jack Bury, recorded in Winderton; talks about harvesting methods - fagging, tying sheaves and leaving to stand for three bells (i.e. three Sundays); discusses a ?sheppick (hay fork); labour force on the farm; mechanisation; informant's family. [Tr. 1] Conclusion of interview which starts on tape LAVC/SRE/A261r. Mr. Simmons, recorded at Wellesbourne; describes farm machinery - steam ploughs, thrashing drums and thrashing process; weather sayings; plant cures; wart cures (broad bean pod); games and pastimes - shin- kicking, badger-drawing (with dogs). [Tr. 2] Mr. Lovesay, recorded in Gaydon; describes farming in the area; small holdings; fagging (collecting/tying sheaves); threshing; gleaning (one stook left in field signalled that farmer did not permit gleaning); Gaydon brickyard - describes brickmaking process; wheelwright; visiting tinsmith; road mending; children crow minding; calendar customs - Watercress Sunday (collecting from local brooks), pre-World War One; primrose gathering on Good Friday; May Day; August Flower Show; Wake (September); Nutting Sunday (hazelnut gathering); stage coach travellers; trotting with horse and gig; weatherlore - rhymes, forecasting; ghost (lady in black) at house in Chadshunt; beliefs regarding death. [Tr. 3] John Rimell, recorded in Newbould-on-Stour; talks about horse brasses (martingales) and saddle repairs (informant saddler for fifty years, apprenticed in Stratford for thirteen years); saddler's tools; horse bells; weatherlore. [Tr. 4] Mrs. Roberts, recorded in Haselor; talks about wart cures (broad bean pods, raw beef) and wart charmers; plant cures; local robbers and treasure buried in Alcock's Arbour; cider making; local supernatural legends - black dog at Walcote; personal experience of ghosts; Walcote witch - curses on horses; haunted Hall at Walcote; money/wishing stone. [Tr. 5] [Collector announcement]; Aubrey Gwinnett, recorded in Alcester; describes the local Court Leet (which meets in October), lists and explains its offices and function. [Tr. 6] Jean Lane, recorded in Winderton; talks about the ghost of the Quaker George Fox in Brailes; sighting of ghost horse and rider (near Epwell?); black lady ghost seen by local man at the World War Two Home Guard Observation post, Fant Hill, above Brailes; local witch (Nance Austin) lived in Upper Brailes - shapeshifting (hare); nun ghost; traditional cures related to the informant for styes, ailing lambs, warts; plantlore - plant root vegetables with waning moon, with rising moon for crops that grow upwards; christening parcels (?handslink package); saluting magpies for luck; farming - harvesting. [Tr. 7] [Collector announcement]; Mr. Adcock, recorded in Alcester; talks about the town, its buildings, history and layout [extracts from an illustrated talk; the ringing of the bell was the signal for the slide to be changed]; reference also to the Court Leet and Alcester Mop (October Fair). [Tr. 8] Mrs. E. Sutton, recorded in Aston Cantlow; talks about weather rhymes concerning Candlemas Day and the swarming of bees as a weather signal; blackthorn winter. [Tr. 9] Concludes on tape LAVC/SRE/A263r. 2 of 3.

Metadata

Identifier nsp2g5s8
IRN 414311
Class Mark LAVC/SRE/A262r
Level Item
Type of Record Archives - ISAD(G)
Peristent Link http://prototype1.library.leeds.ac.uk/nsp2g5s8
Collection(s) Leeds Archive of Vernacular Culture
Category Archive
Parent Record Audiotape Sound Recordings
Creator(s) Wharton, Colin S
Date 1967-1968
Size and Medium 1 x 12.7cm open reel spool, Duration: 126' 27".

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